The 184th RSA Annual Exhibition 2010 will mark a sea change in the direction of the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition policy. Open Submission will be discontinued and replaced by a curated exhibition of invited works on a particular theme from both members and non-members. This theme will change from year to year. Members not involved in the curated section of the exhibition in any given year will continue to exhibit as members of the Academy. The policy of having an Open Submission exhibition will be maintained by mounting an additional exhibition of smaller works in the RSA Lower Galleries in autumn (30 Oct – 15 Dec 2010).

This year’s convenor is Ian McCulloch RSA and his chosen theme for this first exhibition is ‘The Expressive Artist and Social Involvement’. He chose this theme to illustrate how this group of invited artists have over the years expressed their involvement with and critique of society directly through the making process of painting, sculpture, print-making and photography. The majority of the works have a strongly figurative bias underpinned by a sense of drawing and there is a significant use of the emerging medium of digital printing allied to photography which seems to be breathing new life into figurative practice.

The exhibition will also present new works by two RSA award winners from the last year. Philip Braham has been commissioned to make new photographic works for the exhibition as part of the RSA Morton Award and Martin Hill, a graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (and also part of our RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in April) will also exhibit new work as part of the RSA Barns-Graham Travel Award.

The exhibition showcases painting, sculpture, film making, photography, printmaking, architecture and installation across all 12 RSA Upper & Lower Galleries. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full colour publication and most works will be available for purchase! The RSA is part of the Own Art scheme, offering interest-free credit to buy contemporary art and craft.
There will also be gallery tours, artist talks, meet the artists evenings and associated events to encourage the public to get involved and learn more about the art/artists in the show. This range of activities will be hosted by the Friends of the Royal Scottish Academy. This year we are also delighted to announce that the main sponsors for the exhibition are our very own Friend’s of the Royal Scottish Academy.

To complement the exhibition, the Royal Scottish Academy and Friends of the RSA Organisation are hosting a number of exciting events. From gallery talks and evening lectures by artists and art specialists to evenings of poetry and music in the galleries – there is something for everyone!Please visit our Talks & Events page for full details.

GALLERY TOURS & WORKSHOPS

Tuesday 11 May
Lecture – Magic Man: Alan Davie at 90 by Dr Michael Tucker
Alan Davie is one of the country’s most highly regarded artists. Painter, printmaker and musician, his career has spanned over 60 years with collaboration and experimentation at the very heart of it. Long standing friend and champion of Alan Davie, Dr Tucker has written extensively about his work as both an artist and musician. His talk will include film of Alan in the studio and tapes of him improvising on the piano and saxophone.
~ Free event but please call to book a seat.
~ Lecture 7pm RSA Library.

Thursday 20 May
Salon Nights – art after work
Architecture in the Annual.

Friday 4 June
Celebration Dinner.
To celebrate our sponsorship of the RSA Annual Exhibition, and to mark 25 years since the formation of the Steering Group that conceived the Friends, a formal fundraising dinner (with prize draw) will be held in the

Thursday 17 June
Summer Jazz, Auction and Wine Tasting

Tuesday 22 June
An Evening of Poetry and Music with a Japanese Flavour